Scottish law 'will remain middle class unless ministers act'

Students from all ten Scottish university law courses joined a campaign for state funding for would-be lawyers: Tim Haddow, a prime mover in the group, warns that social mobility is worsening in the legal profession

'Poorer students could become lawyers more easily in Margaret Thatcher's Scotland than they can in Alex Salmond's', argues Tim Haddow. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian

Law and education are close to the Scottish government's heart; not least as the two institutions in Scottish life to remain distinct despite 300 years of union with England and Wales.

Certainly, the Scottish National party government in Edinburgh is proud of its stance on free university tuition, stressing the link between access to education and social mobility as a mark of its progressive credentials. And Alex Salmond, the first minister, cannot be accused of lacking passion in defending the Scottish legal system.

But where law and education coincide, practical reality does not reflect political principles. Less well-off students are being excluded from legal training, and social mobility is in retreat.

Poorer students could become lawyers more easily in Margaret Thatcher's Scotland than they can in Alex Salmond's. Douglas Mill, a prominent lawyer and former chief executive of the Law Society of Scotland, now teaching at Glasgow university, is among those who are worried. He told the society's journal earlier this year:

We're in danger of reverting to being an upper middle class profession.

I think it would surprise most solicitors over 40 how much debt people are carrying into the profession these days. Each of the last two years we've had 179 acceptances of offers for the Diploma and only 167 have started the course.

There may be other reasons, but I think our leakage is largely explicable by people who thought they might get a grant and when they didn't, pulled out.

Recent graduate Lauren Reid can testify to this. Inspired to pursue a career in law by school work experience, she became the first in her family to attend university. But she cannot take her ambitions further without completing a one-year postgraduate course, the DPLP (diploma in professional legal practice).

However, over the past 20 years the grants available to assist students like Lauren have not kept pace with rising costs. Assistance with fees now only covers half the actual fees charged whilst a means-tested maintenance grant dwindled into insignificance and was scrapped. And, as Scottish ministers class the DPLP as a second course of study, students are not eligible for normal student loans.

Lauren calculates the capped fees contribution of £3,400 leaves her needing to find more than £9,000 to meet the balance of fees and her living costs for the year. For those like her, for whom this is impossible, the government's assurances that access to the DPLP is 'based on ability to learn, not ability to pay' is mere wishful thinking.

An effective solution is available and already operates for other professions, including veterinary medicine and architecture, which require more than a four-year degree.

For these professions - despite bizarrely denying it - the Scottish government helps secure fair access by allowing students to benefit from student loans for a fifth year of study. Similar arrangements support students on the postgraduate teaching diploma. Yet, with law, potential DPLP students are being denied that same loan arrangement.

The government's refusal to take this simple step for DPLP students shows a complete lack of political will to engage with the issue of fair access to the legal profession. But this issue is galvanising the students themselves: earlier this month, our campaign for fair access to the legal profession succeeded in getting students from all ten Scottish university law courses to join its steering group.

Calls for action have been brushed off by repeating the assertion that fair access already exists. At best this indicates complacency. The responsible minister, Cabinet secretary for education, Mike Russell, declined the Law Society of Scotland's invitation to discuss the issue personally, delegating any contact to his officials, who merely maintain that the government intends to do nothing.

Worse, recent reforms of postgraduate funding demonstrate a complete failure to understand the realities of the situation. The government claims the move gives improved support and wider access. In practice, the reforms are ineffective and wasteful.

Loans remain untargeted by financial need and too small to be meaningful but are now available regardless of academic merit. The only additional beneficiaries will be well-off students who didn't perform well enough academically to gain assistance under the previous scheme.

The government's approach also illustrates a profound lack of understanding of the importance of a representative legal profession. As leading legal blogger Adam Wagner, describes, a nation's legal system inevitably reflects the people who make it up.

Scotland's legal system should fairly balance the needs and interests of all sections of society; that task will be almost impossible if the legal profession itself is overwhelmingly drawn from those from the most privileged backgrounds.

And if, in 25 years time, we are still lamenting the fact that our senior judges are mostly privately educated, it will because the Scottish government is doing nothing today to ensure that increasing diversity amongst law graduates is reflected in a broader legal profession.

About this article

Scottish law 'will remain middle class unless ministers act'

This article was published on
the Guardian website
at 01.38 EDT on Tuesday 21 August 2012.
It was last modified at 02.40 EDT on Wednesday 21 May 2014.
It was first published at 01.37 EDT on Tuesday 21 August 2012.